The Relative Absence of White Privilege in German American Communities

[trenton]

I have recently had some insights about the nuances often overlooked by broad demographic categories. I found myself growing skeptical of historical narratives and political narratives because broad categories such as whites, blacks, Asians, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Men, Women, and other categories are often used in ways that obscure the complexities within these demographics and all of their variations which lead to wildly different outcomes. For example, throughout history "white" was inconsistently defined with some groups now considered white needing more time to be moved to that category. Similarly, it doesn't really explain much to describe warfare in parts of Africa as "black on black" violence because within those groups, they do not use these racial categories and instead use different subcategories which are often lumped together under "blackness." The same pattern of lost nuanced likely applies to many other demographic categories, and it is important to map out some of these subcategories in order to combat stereotypes and broad generalizations which often unfairly target underprivileged groups perceived as privileged. In this case, I will be exploring German Americans, particular in the region of Ohio and Kentucky. Other surrounding States may be relevant as Germans settled in this region after immigration throughout the 1800's. This subcategory of the white population is adjacent to Appalachian white's who are also relatively underprivileged and who later mixed with this population in this region as a consequence of the decline of the coal industry which this group depended on.

This subcategory of whites is sometimes referred to as the "white underclass" or the downwardly mobile working class whites. J.D. Vance wrote about this phenomenon, possibly because of his background with a mother who was a heroin addict and who I met at a recovery center. The relative absence of white privilege in this community might cause offense if they are lumped together with the broader category of whiteness, as there are legitimate sociological complications which resulted in the absence of privilege, complicating life and survival for this group. This group faces intergenerational trauma and instability linked to deindustrialization and Prohibition targeting German communities in the aftermath of WWI as part of a misplaced racist/nationalist outrage at German culture which was well known for breweries. The outcome is that this group has higher rates of substance abuse, criminal activity, and family fragmentation. The sociological patterns map perfectly onto my direct experience within this category.

Firstly, during Prohibition, Ohio and Kentucky had especially high levels of organized crime. The attack on German culture which previously operated well with breweries were systematically undermined, eliminating legal options for revenue that were previously there. Some families which entered the system of organized crime never stopped even after Prohibition ended. The new culture that was created was now a criminal subculture involving gangs, drugs, violence, and in some cases sex trafficking. This phenomenon is criminalization creating criminal subcultures and the criminalization feedback loop. By criminalizing German communities, it created the circumstances which seemingly justified the policy despite the policy creating the circumstances in the first place. The pattern is even starker in black communities in which there was sustained criminalization on various fronts that reinforced each other. It is therefore, not surprising that there are criminal subcultures within black communities such as gangs or dirty rap music as blackness was ruthlessly criminalized. The perception of certain groups being more prone to criminality creates a circular, self-reinforcing system which never actually solves the underlying cause of crime without changing the structure which created it regardless of which specific group is targeted. This likely applies to some Russian subcultures as well in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, leading to displaced outraged at unrelated Russian businesses and communities.

Aside from the criminal lineage creating intergenerational instability, this group has a deteriorated religious thread. Nominally, the ancestry is considered some form of Christian, in my case Catholic, but there is limited practice such as church attendance. This is commonly accompanied by skepticism toward religious claims such as claims of Jesus being born from a virgin or Jesus walking on water or rising from the dead. The outcome is that similar to other religious trends, this community has a rise of non-affiliates. Many of these people have an inherited spiritual language from Christian ancestors, but are not necessarily atheists either. This non-religious group was mentioned in Ken Wilber's "The religion of Tomorrow" as the younger generation is no longer confident in ancient spiritual frameworks such as the Bible. It creates an existential no man's land, which partially drove me to Actualized.org.

The existential void mixed with family loyalty, family dysfunction, and economic instability creates the conditions that lead to high rates of families like mine. The opioid epidemic hits this area particularly hard while incarceration of family members destabilizes the group further. In the particular case of male children, absent fathers commonly create the conditions of problems with intimacy, relationships, and sexuality as a consequence of gang involvement like in my case. There are also higher rates of depression and substance abuse in adulthood as a consequence of childhood trauma, thus repeating the cycle linked to unstable families linked to Prohibition. Educational and employment disruptions are common as a consequence of depression, resulting in underachievement relative to work potential as in my case.

This is important because I have discovered that the "break the cycle" narrative used by my family was incomplete. They told me to be good and stay out of crime, but this is an incomplete framework for breaking the cycle. Me being good isn't enough because I still am repeating the cycle in my own way due to depression undermining my stability. The increased likelihood of poverty therefore creates an intergenerational pattern statistically more likely to lead to crime. Therefore, I am not actually out of the cycle yet and I am still perpetuating it. In order to not perpetuate the cycle, I will be required to find stable employment and the completion of higher education in spite of depression, family scapegoating, isolation, C-PTSD and the collapse of meaning and purpose, and so forth. In my case I became the family scapegoat partially due to truth-telling in an environment which punished truth as it threatened the entire family system.

Autism under these conditions creates a rare psychological profile which doesn't map cleanly onto existing models. Therefore, independent research is required to build an appropriate map, often with original work. I believe the maps I am building are much more helpful for me compared to the other models I saw because I don't seem to match more well-known profiles. In my case, epistemology is my survival strategy because truth informs appropriate action while mapping out self-knowledge. Chess is also something that plays into how my mind functions as I try to systematize various patterns. So it seems that if I am not playing chess, then I start analyzing all of this instead. The specific phenomenon I analyze are often trauma adjacent because I hope the knowledge can help protect me from future harm. This in turn sometimes requires various fields of study to overlap, creating a rare perspective that is difficult to communicate due to the models required being original. The outcome is that my family makes numerous incorrect assumptions about me, making communication impossible with them.

I am currently trying to map out suicidology profiles. This is extremely complex, but also extremely practical due to how accurate it could be. The problem is that suicidology feels so accurate to my experience that it is hard for me to look that directly at the truth without feeling emotionally overwhelmed. I hope this knowledge can serve to stabilize me long term by mapping out the specific psychological pattern that creates this instability, but the process itself is intellectually demanding and emotionally heavy. Unfortunately, the mental health system isn't good enough for people like me.

What do you think of this relative absence of privilege in German American communities linked to the intergenerational trauma caused by Prohibition as displaced backlash from WWI?